The Autism Revolution

After years of treating patients and analyzing scientific data, prominent Harvard researcher and clinician Dr. Martha Herbert offers a revolutionary new view of autism and a transformative strategy for dealing with it. Autism is not a hardwired impairment programmed into a child’s genes and destined to remain fixed forever, as we’re often told. Instead, it is the result of a cascade of events, many seemingly minor: perhaps a genetic mutation, some toxic exposures, a stressful birth, a vitamin deficiency, and a series of infections. And while other doctors may dismiss your child’s physical symptoms—the diarrhea, anxiety, sensory overload, sleeplessness, immune challenges, and seizures—as coincidental or irrelevant, Dr. Herbert sees them as vital clues to what the underlying problems are, and how to help. In The Autism Revolution, she teaches you how to approach autism as a collection of problems that can be overcome—and talents that can be developed. Each success you achieve gives your child more room to become healthy and to thrive.

Drawing from the newest research, technologies, and insights, as well as inspiring case studies of both children and adults, Dr. Herbert guides you toward restoring health and resiliency in your loved one with autism. Her specific recommendations aim to provide optimal nutrition, reduce toxic exposures, shore up the immune system, reduce stress, and open the door to learning and creativity—all by understanding and truly meeting your child’s needs. As thousands of families who have cobbled together these solutions themselves already know, this program can have dramatic benefits—for your child with autism, and for you, your whole family, and your next baby as well.

A paradigm-changing book that offers hope and healing for the millions of families who have autism in their lives, The Autism Revolution shows that there’s plenty you can do every day to give someone you love the best possible gift: a life lived to the fullest potential.

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Praise

Martha Herbert’s book gives us a new approach to understanding how autism affects many different body systems. It is essential reading for learning more about sensible biomedical treatments.

- Temple Grandin, author of Thinking in Pictures and The Way I See It

This book offers hope and practical guidance to heal your child’s whole body system. It will be an important reference for everyone who knows someone with autism or has an interest in the field to read, study, and use.

- Robert L. Hendren, DO, professor and vice chair, Department of Psychiatry, and director, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, University of California, San Francisco

Combining meticulous, world-class research on autism’s biomedical causes and treatment with an artful presentation of the condition as a whole-body phenomenon, Martha Herbert elevates to a new level the thinking about, understanding of, and developing of interventions for supporting individuals on the autism spectrum. The Autism Revolution is a unique and valuable resource.

Written by a brilliant scientist in easy-to-understand language, The Autism Revolution gives parents two life-changing gifts. First is the gift of realistic hope; the second is the gift of knowledge. Drawing upon her vast knowledge of research and an eclectic array of approaches, Dr. Herbert helps parents understand their child in a new, holistic way, sending them on a journey of exploration and opportunity.

The Autism Revolution is a remarkable book. Complex evidence is summarized in easy-to-read prose, and practical advice is sprinkled throughout the book. A convincing case is made that autism is a disorder of both the brain and the body, and that there are many features of the environment—from the foods we eat to the pollutants that we breathe—that may play a role. This book will provide a blueprint for the future research agenda on this fascinating condition.

- Richard J. Davidson, William James and Vilas Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry, and founder and chair, Center for Investigating Healthy Minds, University of Wisconsin-Madison

It is clear that Dr. Herbert cares deeply about the subject of autism and the people affected by it. Covering the topic as a physician, a scientist, an anthropologist, and a philosopher, she uses her exploration of autism to guide people to possible factors they may not have considered.